Costa Mesa outsourcing talks resume next month

April 27, 2012

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

1 of 15

Earlier this month, the City Council voted not to outsource the Fire Department and rescinded 87 active layoff notices. The council on May 15 will look at outsourcing jail and street sweeping services, among six others. Here, firefighter paramedic Mark Geiger from Costa Mesa Fire Station 4, rides in the seat of a Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) vehicle as the unit responds to a fire alarm at a Costa Mesa business. LEONARD ORTIZ, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

1 of 15

Costa Mesa fire department engineer Pete Melgosa from Fire Station 4, raises the cab if the fire engine to run a series of mechanical checks on the unit. LEONARD ORTIZ, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

1 of 15

Dozens of concerned city employees attended a City Council meeting in March 2011 when the council voted to issue layoff notices to 213 employees in 18 city services as a proposed budget-cutting measure. ROSE PALMISANO, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

1 of 15

Dozens of concerned city employees attended a City Council meeting in March 2011. The City Council voted to issue layoff notices to 213 employees in 18 city services as a proposed budget-cutting measure. ROSE PALMISANO, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Feet to the Fire forum panelists, Orange County Employees Association General Manager Nick Berardino, left and Costa Mesa City Councilman Jim Righeimer, right, have a disagreement as Councilwoman Wendy Leece, center listens at the Costa Mesa Community Center on April 18, 2011. The forum was held to discuss layoffs and pensions in the city. CHRISTINE COTTER, FOR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

1 of 15

Costa Mesa firefighter paramedics Tim Keating, left, and Mark Geiger from Costa Mesa Fire Station 4 wait for traffic to clear to return to their unit after responding to a fire alarm at a Costa Mesa business. LEONARD ORTIZ, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

1 of 15

Costa Mesa firefighter paramedics Mark Geiger, left, and Tim Keating, of Fire Station 4 do their daily equipment checks from their Urban Search and Rescue unit. LEONARD ORTIZ, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Earlier this month, the City Council voted not to outsource the Fire Department and rescinded 87 active layoff notices. The council on May 15 will look at outsourcing jail and street sweeping services, among six others. Here, firefighter paramedic Mark Geiger from Costa Mesa Fire Station 4, rides in the seat of a Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) vehicle as the unit responds to a fire alarm at a Costa Mesa business. LEONARD ORTIZ, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Graphics

COSTA MESA – The city's outsourcing odyssey will come to a head in May.

The City Council will consider whether to outsource six municipal services in its regular meeting May 15. In the coming weeks and months, the council will review a dozen other departments.

The shadow of the city's current legal strife with its employees association still looms over any talks of outsourcing, threatening to delay or derail the process.

This next phase of the outsourcing process comes 14 months after a cash-strapped council sent out six-month layoff notices to more than half its workforce and one year after the city employees union sued the city – a long road that has left employees feeling demoralized, a union spokeswoman said.

For the first time, the City Council and the public will be able to review the potential savings outsourcing to public agencies or the private sector has to offer.

Some proposals will likely show significant financial benefits of outsourcing. Others will not; the service will be kept in-house and the layoff notices rescinded, city officials said.

Earlier this month, the City Council voted not to outsource the fire department and rescinded 87 active layoff notices. Instead, the department will look to slim down its operations to save millions per year.

Of the six services being reviewed by the City Council on May 15, at least two – jails and street sweeping – show potential savings. City Chief Executive Officer Tom Hatch said staff are discussing and working on contracts with outside entities to provide the city with those services.

Staff will recommend animal control, video production and building inspection services be kept in-house, Hatch said, although the City Council could disagree and vote differently.

Outsourcing in and of itself is not always the solution, but the exercise of examining the resources of individual departments has been beneficial, Councilman Steve Mensinger said.

"Cities should be going through (this exercise) every one or two years, but government doesn't do that," Mensinger said. "I think, in the end, it's a healthy process to go through."

Even in departments where outsourcing is a viable option, however, the city still can't sign a contract with a private vendor just yet. With the CMCEA lawsuit ongoing, the fate of the contracts and city workers' jobs are similarly up in the air.

"The lawsuit is like an umbrella over everything," Councilwoman Wendy Leece said. "I'm all for being efficient, saving tax dollars and providing comparable service ... but until the judge rules ... we can't really do anything, so it's kind of moot. There's no action until our legal issues are resolved."

A preliminary injunction prevents City Hall from contracting out for services with the private sector until the lawsuit by the Costa Mesa City Employees Association is heard in court. The suit alleges the city violated its own rules and breached existing employee contracts when it issued layoff notices to 213 city workers in March 2011.

As part of its vigorous defense, the city has appealed the injunction – granted by Judge Tam Nomoto Schumann – but that, in turn, has delayed the trial court proceedings.

The appellate court must rule two months after oral arguments are heard on May 23, city spokesman Bill Lobdell said in an email. Until then, the trial won't happen.

Hatch said the bidding process is moving forward despite the CMCEA lawsuit. Pending a favorable outcome for the city, the contracts will be approved, he said.

Councilman Jim Righeimer introduced in December a draft of a city charter, which he proposed to give the city more flexibility in how it contracted out for services. The proposed charter failed to reach the June ballot, and will now go for a vote in November.

As for the employees – a central part of the City Council's requests for proposals asked bidders to hire the city workers that would be laid off in favor of outsourcing, Mensinger said.

"In theory, the council can ask the employers of the companies we select to hire the employees that we have – and they want to do that anyway," Mensinger said. "I can certainly tell you we'll ask it to be a condition of contracting."

Still, it's been a long year for the pink-slipped employees, said Jennifer Muir, spokeswoman for the Orange County Employees Association.

Muir said she recently attended one of CMCEA's general membership meetings where the biggest topic of discussion was dealing with the stress of impending potential layoffs.

"It's demoralizing. Employees are tired. Many of them are suffering from health effects as a result of all this stress that they've been forced to endure," Muir said.

Some Costa Mesa employees have received five extensions to their initial March 2011 pink slips, Muir added.

These problems, she said, could have been avoided if the city had requested proposals on city services before issuing layoff notices.

"It just seems like this entire year of heartache and struggle and attacks on the employees was just completely needless," Muir said. "Until (the layoff notices) go away, until the city begins healing again and until the City Council stops playing politics with the city ... they're not going to feel relieved."

Related Links

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.